Cohen is going to try to buy a Championship with a team full of mercenaries.

Few things are more predictable than Mike Lupica's moral relativity:

"The most interesting sports person in town this year, Steve Cohen, didn’t officially get the Mets until six weeks ago. It seems he’s been around longer, because of all the drama of the sale, including the drama king and queen of that story, meaning Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez, who ultimately had as much of a chance against going up against Cohen as you or me."

Alex Rodriguez.

Don't sell yourself short, Mr. Lupica.

The most interesting "sports person in town" ... whatever that even means ... is you.

 "But as soon as Cohen’s inevitable purchase of the team got locked down solid, at a price tag of $2.4 billion, something else became official, and pretty quickly. It was the stated position of most Mets fans I know on the subject of Steven Cohen, if not all of them

It went something like this:

He might be one of those Wall Street, 'Billions'-type robber barons but, by God, he’s our robber baron."

I don't think any Mets fans knew much about Steve Cohen until he bought the Mets.

"And were generally unbothered, or just forgetful, about the inside-trading charges once leveled against Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors LP, for which Cohen paid $1.8 billion — 1.8 billion with a b, enough to buy most baseball teams — in penalties. Part of the settlement for Cohen (at that time), a hedge fund legend of the first rank, was that he was only allowed to manage his own money. It must also be noted that he was never criminally charged. It frankly wouldn’t have bothered Mets fans if he had, no matter what kind of bad boy he’d been back in the day."

He sure has a lot of money, doesn't he? 

"In all ways in sports, especially if someone gives your team a better chance to win, any indiscretions in the past, or billion-dollar penalties in Cohen’s case, are simply viewed as the cost of doing business."

With whom are you arguing, MOTO?

"Seriously? Do you think a majority of Yankee fans were ever truly bothered that George M. Steinbrenner, the most famous owner in the history of the city, was kicked out of baseball twice, even though that is a world’s record that may stand for all of time?"

No.

I don't think a majority of Yankee fans were ever truly bothered that George M. Steinbrenner was kicked out of baseball twice.

You are among the few who criticized Steinbrenner, incessantly, about everything.

"You know what Mr. Steinbrenner is now? The biggest plaque in Monument Park. He was the owner when the Yankees got back on top, and he was still the owner when they became as great a dynasty as we’ve had in Yankee history, between 1996 and 2000, four World Series titles in five years and nearly five in six."

Well, I did some fact-checking, and it turns out Lupica is right about this one.

The Yankees won four World Series in five years between 1996 and 2000.

Who knew?

Is this going anywhere?

"The Mets haven’t played a game that counts yet. Long way from that. This is an old song lyric turned on its head: Will Mets fans love Steve Cohen in May as they do in December? We’ll find out. But for now there is one thing completely official about the official new owner of the Mets:

The guy who feels like the biggest player in town these days isn’t even a player."

I have no idea what you're even talking about.

There is a difference between stopping a column and ending a column, and this column just stops.

Steve Cohen is the owner of the Mets ... and George Steinbrenner used to be the owner of the Yankees, I guess, is the point.

Also, a reference to a song lyric I don't recognize. Which is fine. It would be embarrassing to the reader if they understood your outdated pop culture references.

Mets: good.

Yankees: bad.

 

 

Cohen isn't stupid.

Some Mets fans think Cohen is going to spend all of his money on the Mets. 

Sign Bauer, Springer, Arenado, LeMahieu, and that catcher from Philly.

Overpay for all of them if you have to.

Make a splash.

Set the market.

Like, he should waste money because he has a lot of it.

Well, how do you think he got a lot of money?

By being stupid?

Most of the people on Earth were not alive in 1961.

"You know what Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton were going to be, in addition to being the biggest bookends the Yankees had ever had: They were going to be Mantle and Maris 2.0 or even more in a home run world."

Meh.

 

"It was in 1961 that Roger Maris hit 61 home runs and Mickey hit 54. After that it would be nearly 60 years until the Yankees would enter a season with two guys who had 50-plus home run seasons on their resumes. "

Actually, in 1962 the Yankees entered the season with two guys who had 50-plus home run seasons on their resumes.

Those two guys were Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle.

So the Yankees had to wait one season.

Then the same can be said of every subsequent year until 1967.

Right?

Yeah, I know that's not what you meant, but it's what you said.

 

I got another one, genius: 2011.

Alex Rodriguez and Andruw Jones.

Again, I know this is not what you meant. You meant power hitters in their prime where the expectation was, quite possibly, 100 HRs between them.

But that's not what you said, professional writer.

"That was 2018. Judge was coming off a 52-homer season. Stanton was coming off a 59-homer season in Miami. So that was 111 home runs between them, at different ends of the East Coast, four fewer than Mickey and Roger hit in ’61."

Damn, man.

1961, 1986, 2004.

Even 2004 is ancient history and now you want to talk about a team from 1961.

I know all about the1961 Yankees. Johnny Blanchard with 21 home runs off the bench.

What does it have to do with anything?

 

"The big guys who combined for 111 home runs in the baseball season of 2017 have combined to hit 108 in their three seasons together in the Bronx."

I mean ... we know.

It's not easy to hit home runs when you're not playing.

 

"Three years later the most intense pressure on them isn’t to hit home runs, it is to stay on the field. I hear all the time that the various injuries they’ve suffered happen all the time to guys their size. Really? How come they didn’t happen to a power forward named David Winfield? You know how many games Winfield missed in his first eight seasons with the Yankees? 89. Judge beat that in 2018 and ’19 alone. Stanton over the last two years has missed 181."

I don't know why Dave Winfield was relatively healthy when compared to Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge.

Neither do you.

I can find lots of baseball players of all sizes who stayed healthy, and I can find lots of baseball players of all sizes who were unable to stay healthy.

 

"It is why the idea that they are going to play together for a long time, and hit all the home runs we thought they were going to hit, seems less and less sustainable."

Ha ha. No kidding. 

 

"Maybe the Yankees win a World Series or two before a walk year for Aaron Judge. But if they don’t, and Judge is still here, we would be looking at three players — Judge, Stanton, Cole — taking up $100 million of payroll. How is that sustainable going forward, especially since all three of them would be past 30 by then?"

It's sustainable because the Yankees have a current net worth of $5 billion. 

You know this.

What is going on here?

"It seems impossible that the Yankees could find a taker for Stanton no matter how much of his contract they were willing to pick up, not after we’ve seen Stanton play a grand total of 41 regular-season games out of the 222 the Yankees played over the past two seasons, which basically means one-fifth."

Not at all.

If the Yankees pick up, say, ninety percent of his salary, then every team in baseball would want Giancarlo Stanton.

Think A.J. Burnett. 

"And Judge? After hitting those 52 home runs and becoming the face of the Yankees and one of the fresh faces of baseball in 2017, he has hit 63 since. He missed 50 games one season and 60 games the next and would have missed 100 at least if there had been a full 162 in 2020, not a 60-game season that saw Judge play less than half of those games."

Right.

Stanton and Judge are injury-prone.

Which is why they haven't combined for as many home runs as Mantle and Maris hit 59 years ago.

Got it. 

 

"The Yankees are stuck with that contract. For a designated hitter. Cashman said the other day that because they have Stanton locked up until the 12th of Never, they had no room for Kyle Schwarber, who would have been a dream — and left-handed hitting — DH at the new Yankee Stadium, an old-fashioned lefty hitter with home run pop on a team that is righty heavy."

Staggering logic.

An injury-prone left-handed hitter who hit .188 last year and is a career .230 batting average is a dream.

It totally sounds like a dream come true for Schwarber to play half his games at Yankees Stadium. In exchange for 5 additional home runs, you'll get 200 strike outs and 300 into-the-shift ground balls. The Giambi/Teixeira Highway to Hell.

Besides, the lefty/righty thing is outdated in the era of the Super Ball.

Most of Judge's home runs go to center field or right field. Stanton pretty much the same, I think.

 

"If Stanton even had a slightly manageable deal, which he sure doesn’t, maybe you could move him. He doesn’t have that kind of deal. It would be like moving the Stadium itself.

No one would have thought this possible a few years ago, but maybe one of these days — and soon — the Yankees decide that Judge is the one who has to go."

It's looking too far into the future.

Maybe Stanton is about to win back-to-back MVPs and Judge is going to win back-to-back World Series MVPs. If so, they're not going anywhere.

I don't know if Stanton and Judge can stay healthy. I am confident they will be productive on the field if they're healthy.

I know two things for sure:

1. Judge is very popular with the fans. If this continues, the Yankees will sign him.
2. The Yankees can afford to pay Stanton, Cole, and Judge at the same time. 

Just like the Ellsbury contract didn't matter and the ARod contract didn't matter, the Stanton contract doesn't matter.

 

 

Again with Voit.

LeMahieu is acknowledged as team's best player.

A lot of this value comes from his versatility in the field, sure, but also his excellence at playing third base and second base.

First base, not so much.

Some stats suggest Voit is a bad fielder at first. He seems pretty good to me when he's healthy. Surely good enough for the guy who led the majors in home runs, no?

So keep Urshela at third, move Torres to second, move LeMahieu to first, and put Unnamed Free Agent Signing / Voit Trade Result at shortstop.

So now you've got a gold glove second baseman playing first and a bad shortstop playing second.

Who knows who's playing short, but he'd better be Ozzie Smith.

One of my personal favorite players, but ...

 ... he just isn't a great pitcher anymore.

His well-earned reputation as a playoff stud took a hit this year, though I felt he was a little unlucky in the playoffs.

If the Yankees can get LeMahieu for $60 million, that would be great.

"In 50 games this year, LeMahieu led the majors with a career-high batting average of .364. He also won the National League title while with the Rockies in 2016, hitting .348.

Now, with his ability to play first, second and third having been demonstrated, LeMahieu’s versatility and having proven he can hit outside the hitter-friendly confines of Colorado’s Coors Field, the 32-year-old is going to get about $20 million a year for at least three years, two American League executives and two agents agreed. 

And LeMahieu has many more suitors than when the Yankees took advantage of his down market in 2018.

With the Yankees having made clear that they wanted to get under the $210 million luxury tax threshold even before managing partner Hal Steinbrenner publicly claimed the team lost the most money in baseball with the coronavirus pandemic-abbreviated season, that doesn’t give the Bombers much payroll flexibility to work with."

We all agree he's the best player on the Yankees.

We all agree he's in demand.

Now compare 3/$60 to the other players on the Yankees. 

Compare 3/$60 to similar players throughout baseball.

Something in the logic is not synching up.

I wouldn't trade Zach Wheeler for dead players or retired players.

A weird solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

The Yankee infield: Urshela, Torres, LeMahieu (cross your fingers), and Voit. It's a great infield.

Voit led the majors in HRs and played through an injured foot.

You move LeMahieu to first base and you lose one of his best skills -- his ability to play spectacular defense at an important defensive position.

Yeah, I guess Voit's trade value is high; maybe he's just good.

When players are good, your keep them on your team, because a good team is composed of good players.

Trade everybody who's good for bullpen pitchers. 

Move Torres back to second base because ... why? 

All the genius armchair GMs have the some dopey solution.

You don't know what you don't know.

I laughed out loud when I saw David Ortiz on this list.

This really isn't a useful list. It lists a bunch of great baseball players you already knew were great.

Did any of them take steroids? Probably.

Did all of them take steroids? Maybe.

Mets fix their bullpen again.

Truly horrible 60-game season.

The Yankees may even choose to replace him. His descent seems to be irreversible.

Having said that, there is no reason to DFA him or trade him. He has no trade value whatsoever.

Sorry, Yankee fans, but that's how that works.

At some point, all things culminate.

I tend to agree that the Yankees would outbid the Mets, if necessary.

My gripe with most of the coverage is that it's nothing more than the wishful thinking of Met fans and the overwrought reactions of Yankee fans.

Just play him as shortstop and his defense will probably improve.

"But" seems to be the wrong conjunction.

"After his best offensive season in years, a second drug suspension confirmed what Robinson Cano didn’t want us to know.

Barring a plot twist only JJ Abrams could conceive, the second-base icon’s brilliant season, and, on a pure X’s and O’s-basis, Hall of Fame-worthy career is likely to be overshadowed by the fallout from his positive Stanozolol test.

...

Cano’s suspension without pay will last the entire 2021 season, and with that, the Mets are down a productive hitter. Exactly why he was the most productive 37-year-old in the game? Well, that’s between him, his doctor, and, potentially, his other doctors. (Or 'doctors.' As of writing, Cano had yet to issue a statement about his positive test.)"

I don't think it's going out on a limb to connect the dots regarding Cano's surprisingly productive season.

But, Cano hit .316/.352/.544 in 2020, and his .896 OPS was third best on the team, mashing in a lineup that had the third best OPS in baseball. He can still stroke the ball with authority, as his exit velocity remains in the top quarter of all big league hitters, so there’s no reason to think Cano is fluking his way into good stats.

There's no reason to think Cano is fluking his way into good stats?

Other than the positive Stanozozol test that led to a year-long suspension? 

"Beyond the numbers game, Cano has been respected as a high-character leader for nearly a decade, both with the Mariners and Mets."

This is starting to sound like a fake article.

"Without an A-Rod like third act, the Cano era might be over in Queens, if not in a contractual sense — he’s signed through 2023 — almost certainly a spiritual one. Wednesday may have been a dispiriting day for Cano and the teammates and rivals who loved him, but his inglorious departure is an open door the Mets are uniquely prepared to seize."

Maybe some teammates are sad to seem him go, but it's obviously good news for the Mets.

They're off the hook for a bad contract for a player who had a PED-fueled pretty good return to form in a sub-200 at-bat season.

Sure, baseball teams kinda want to make the playoffs ...

 ... inasmuch as playoff baseball generally creates a quick infusion of cash:

"The era of opportunity cost in baseball, the chapter we’ve lived in for the past quarter-century, is dead. Several years ago I made the case that it was time to stop considering player salaries when conducting transaction analysis, both because of its devaluation of labor and because of the difficulty of understanding what, exactly, the lost opportunity of an albatross contract presents when we lack access to trustworthy financial information. Now, I repeat this request, because the consideration of baseball players as commodities is no longer simply distasteful, it is also meaningless. Teams no longer operate under the constraints we’ve long assumed.

Thirty teams had the opportunity to employ relief pitcher Brad Hand for a single year at a price of $10 million. Thirty teams could pencil in a league-average, in-their-prime second baseman in Kolten Wong for $12.5 million. None did so. The idea of large and small markets, that some teams can afford the best players and others can’t, the philosophy that underpinned the seminal cliche of modern baseball, Moneyball, is now a myth. Your favorite team could improve its chances of winning. It won’t, because it doesn’t believe it’s worth it. Franchises are no longer forced to rely on winning to create profit. The era of baseball as pure competition is over."

Fleetwood Mac has released two albums in 25 years, and you can't name one song from either of them.

Because Fleetwood Mac doesn't sell music. 

They sell the idea of Fleetwood Mac.

 

MLB fans have been duped for a long time, not only with regards to the "value" of players, but the entire relentless fan-as-GM nonsense: "Move DJ to first base and trade Voit for some starting pitchers."

What a genius idea that everybody else thought of.

If Joe from Metuchen were the Yankees' GM, they undoubtedly would have won 12 Championships over the past 20 years.

It may be disheartening to realize that your fandom is taken for granted, but it is.

 

 

Robinson Cano.

"I was walking with Robert Kraft across a parking lot in Foxboro one morning a long time ago, watching him interact with Patriots fans, when he stopped and said, 'No owner owns the fans. We’re all caretakers of a public trust.' Kraft was the first I ever heard use the expression. He was right, of course. That’s what Cohen sounded like the other day, when he didn’t just sound like the richest Mets fan on the planet, one who instantly made Mets fans think as if they’ve already scored the biggest free agent in baseball."

I was spritzing with Buck Showalter and Tony Larussa in a Lake Tahoe sauna talking about Mookie Wilson, Bob Gibson, and the time Dave Roberts stole second base against the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS ...

  

"But then along came Derek Jeter on Friday, the most famous Yankee since Mickey Mantle, to remind you all over again that everybody better pay attention to him down in South Florida now that he is running the Marlins. Steve Cohen, new Mets owner, said a lot of good things. Capt. Jeter, who runs the show with the Marlins, did something great when he hired Kim Ng to be his general manager."

That's ... cool? I guess?

Did Jeter just beat Cohen in the competition for coolest MLB owner?

"And if you think that somehow Jeter only chose Kim Ng because she is a woman, as if he wanted to make a statement instead of an incredibly intelligent hire, than you have missed the arc of Ng’s career. 

Of course I missed the arc of Kim Ng's career.

Why would I follow the arc of the careers of MLB executives?

Your Sunday columns are boring enough.

 

"She has been preparing herself to get this kind of opportunity for over 20 years, with the Yankees and the Dodgers and working for Major League Baseball in the essential area of baseball operations. If she were a man, people would look at the road she took to this moment and say, 'Okay, it was her time,' and think nothing more of it."

Ummm ... I'm already thinking nothing more of it.

 

"I think the Yankees would be nuts to lose DJ LeMahieu, who has been their best player for two years.

And I frankly think the Mets would be nuts not to go after him hard.

I am going to keep asking this question about LeMahieu:

When was the last time the Yankees let their best player just walk away?"

The last time?

Robinson Cano.

Lots of things might happen.

"DJ LeMahieu is one of the best free-agent signings the Yankees have ever made. Now they might lose him to free agency."

Are you going to present any new information in this article?

 

"It is as good a place as any to start talking about what LeMahieu has been to the Yankees, and what they might lose if they decide they can’t afford to keep him, even though he has been their best player since they got him for $24 million and two years after he left the Rockies."

It's as good a place to start as any to start talking about something that everybody already knows. 

But you do you, Lupica.

 

"Once it would have been unthinkable that the Yankees would allow somebody who is now a finalist for the American League Most Valuable Player Award to walk away. It might happen."

"Might."

 

Also, what about Robinson Cano? 

There might be others ... they traded Rickey, who would win an MVP shortly thereafter ... they traded Winfield in 1990, when he was 4th in MVP voting in 1988.

Reggie Jackson.

They lost Reggie to free agency a mere two seasons after his near-MVP 1980 season. Yes or no?

Cano was fifth in MVP voting in 2013 and signed with Seattle in the off-season.

That's four times I can think of off the top of my head. The parallels aren't precisely the same, they never are. But, in each case, they let MVP-quality players walk away.

Which is a lot for something that is unthinkable and never happened.

 

"LeMahieu is every bit the MVP candidate that fellow AL finalists José Abreu and José Ramirez are. Whether he wins the award or not – and I honestly believe he should -- you have to know that a Yankees team that many felt was good enough to win the World Series wouldn’t have even made the postseason without him."

Ha ha.

There is no reason to exaggerate.

I'm just being honest here. The Yankees only needed, what, 28 wins to make the playoffs?

Eight AL teams made the playoffs. The Yankees had a very disappointing season with only 33 wins. I have trouble believing they would have missed the playoffs entirely if it weren't for DJ LeMahieu.

 

"LeMahieu doesn’t make a lot of noise. He just came to New York and quietly became the best Yankee. The Yankees never lose a player like this. Now they might. It is, in the words of 'The Princess Bride,' inconceivable."

OK, so here's the problem: There is zero information in this entire article.

Everyone loves LeMahieu and everyone knows his value.

Sure, he was a surprise and a bargain, but he's no longer a surprise and, despite his laconic personality, he won't settle for being a bargain much longer.

So it's like every other decision.

The Yankees "might" sign him. 

Maybe the Yankees offer 5/$120 and LeMahieu gobbles it up before Christmas.

But what if the Philliles offer 8/$300? 

Then the Yankees "might" not sign him, and the inconceivable is suddenly quite conceivable.

 

 

Now he doesn't even wait until Spring Training.

"The team to watch in New York."

Maybe the Mets will also get the "backpage" for the four people who still read newspapers"

"If there's one team to watch more than any other in baseball this offseason, it's the Mets.

That's right, the Mets are trying to make themselves the team to watch in New York once again. It has happened before, the two times the Mets won the World Series -- first in 1969, when they were the Miracle Mets, and then in '86, when the Mets of Doc and Darryl and Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter felt like the greatest show on earth."

I mean ... 

For what it's worth, I heard the same thing about Dellin Betances.

 

"At this time of year -- and at any time of the year -- the Yankees have long been the team to watch. They don’t always make the biggest moves or sign the biggest free agents the way they did last winter with Gerrit Cole, or two years ago when they traded for Giancarlo Stanton, fresh off his NL MVP Award-winning season."

That's funny, because in Mike Lupica's World, the Yankees are never the team to watch. Only the Mets.

 

Good call by Giancarlo.